Pictures

These photos are from my ingenious partner, John Nissen, who went on record as the first Minnesotan to successfully launch a two-stage High-Power rocket a few years ago. Of course, he had to "throw all the dice" and engineered an onboard camera to record the event (even though it taxed his record attempt). You should see THAT contraption! He made the attempt with a Public Missiles, Ltd. 2-stage model called the Quantum Leap, powered by 2 Aerotech "I" motors (one in each stage). The onboard camera recorded the photo-frames via a prism, the angle of the lens took a split frame shot (one looking straight-out, perpendicular of the rocket via a space between the prism and the rocket body and a second looking directly down the rocket body via the prism).

The set of photos below recorded the first 2-stage flight of the Quantum Leap. The onboard camera recorded one frame per second, each frame was a split view. The first frame is one second after liftoff. The camera was initialized into action by a gravity switch. I edited out the "look-out" part of the first frame to provide you with a larger view of the initial launch. A total of 36 frames were taken by an onboard Vivitar "family-style" camera that was mechanically triggered by a Rube-Goldberg contraption that you'd have to see to believe. One look at it and you'd have to bend the knee to John Nissen and proclaim, "You are Jedi!". I have provided you with "dramatic moments" frames. The "near apogee" frame is about 11 seconds after launch...these puppies move out hey!

The 1st stage of the Quantum Leap powers up and this puppy is on it's way! If you have never witnessed a High-Power launch...you're missin' out! The flame and white smoke of the Aerotech "I-284" White Lightning motor are quite visible.	Note the lower second set of fins as the first stage burns out. The second stage is about to drop away. This "delay" is just a couple of seconds...the rocket is already moving quite fast, the second stage will accelerate it to sonic!	The second stage Aerotech "I-211" motor kicks in; the weight of the first stage is gone (note a single set of fins at this point) and the Mother of Acceleration RULES! This baby is outta here!	Second stage burn-out and the rocket is still cruising to apogee, now above an 8,000 ft ceiling of sparse clouds...a few more seconds, a couple of thousand more feet - and the Quantum blows it's parachute recovery system for a lengthy decent back to earth...so you can see these pictures!

Here are some rocket shots from the best angle available, from the on-board camera in the rocket itself!